coal imports has been declining over the last three years. During 2014-15 India imported 217.78 million tonnes of coal which declined to 203.95 million tonnes in 2015-16 and further to 190.95 million tonnes in 2016-17.

The trend of fall in import of coal continued unabated in 2017-18 and during April-June 2017-18, 52.74 million tonnes of coal was imported against 57.38 million tonnes in the corresponding previous period registering a 8.1% fall, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said citing figures of the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence & Statistics.

Stating this in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal & New and Renewable Energy and Mines, Piyush Goyal said that coal imports has been declining over the last three years. During 2014-15 India imported 217.78 million tonnes of coal which declined to 203.95 million tonnes in 2015-16 and further to 190.95 million tonnes in 2016-17.

“The fall in imports is largely on account of enhanced production by Coal India, due to which the country has moved from a regime of coal scarcity to a coal surplus situation,” the minister said.

The vendible stock of CIL has increased form 53.62 Mt. as on 01.04.2015 to 61.92 Mt. as on 01.04.2017. The off-take/ dispatch of coal of CIL has also increased from 488.86 Mt in 2014-15 to 542.82 Mt. in 2016-17.

The vendible stock of CIL even on 01.07.2017 was 49.90 Mt. However, the gap between demand and supply of coal cannot be bridged completely as there is insufficient domestic availability of coking coal and power plants designed on imported coal will continue to import coal for their production, the Minister added.